OS X/Windows: Apple announced an upcoming iTunes overhaul today, including new features to learn more about an artist from your music library or playlists, manage playlists faster, an updated and easier to shop iTunes Store, and use iCloud to save where you stopped a movie or playlist so you can pick it up on another device.

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iTunes also picked up an updated mini-player that looks sharper than before, fits in the corner of your screen, and lets you search your library and control playback at the same time. Adding songs to a playlist from your library is much easier than before, and you can browse both at the same time. Click an album or song in-place to expand it and see details about the song or artist (similar to the way folders expand open in iOS,) or browse more by that artist in the iTunes Store. The new iTunes will be tightly integrated with Facebook (likely at the expense of Ping) for music sharing, as well.

The new design makes the desktop versions of iTunes much more like the iOS version, which we can only hope means faster performance and less bloat overall. The new iTunes will be available for OS X and Windows in late October.